Students raise concerns over Central Library toilets

Several students contacted Felix this week reporting overflowing sanitary bins, blood on floors and walls, and out of order facilities.

A number of students have recently raised concerns over the cleanliness and upkeep of the toilet facilities at Imperial.

Several students this week spoke to Felix over the state of the bathrooms around campus, particularly those in Central Library. Students reported having to use bathrooms with blood on the walls and floor, overflowing sanitary bins, and used sanitary products on the floor and toilet seats. Felix was sent photographic evidence of bloodied tampons on the floor of toilet cubicles in the women’s bathrooms in Central Library.

One student told Felix overflowing sanitary bins “causes many problems, since when you’re on your period and need to change towels or tampons, there’s often nowhere to put the old ones. The bins are not small, and given the fact they seem to be in a permanent state of overflow, it makes you wonder how often they really are emptied. It is horribly unsanitary, and seems to be a problem specific to the Library.”
Further issues were raised with out of order facilities, with students reporting closure of several of the men’s bathrooms in Central Library this week due to “essential repairs and servicing”. Students also reported equipment in toilet cubicles falling off the wall and injuring them.

One student told Felix: “The Level 5 urinals have been flooding and spilling out over the floor. Today the whole bathroom was marked out of order, as were the ground floor toilets, making the ones that remained operational considerably busier. It’s just one more thing for us to worry about on top of the impending exams.”

These problems come at a particularly busy time for Central Library, as many undergraduate students prepare for upcoming examinations.

A spokesperson for Imperial College London said: “Library Services constantly reviews the cleaning of our facilities and works with the cleaning team to continue to make improvements. In recent months adjustments have been made to the cleaning programme for Library Services and we will continue to review these plans and make amendments as appropriate during the busy revision period”.

Central Library is currently in the middle on an ongoing renovation project, which aims to bring about long-awaited improvements in temperature control. The first phase of the project, which saw Levels 4 and 5 closed for several months, was completed earlier this academic year.